Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Should have eloped

In Galveston last year, a bride's 19-year old brother got drunk and belligerent toward a police officer at her wedding, so he responded by calling in 30 more officers who decided to clear the room using "pepper spray and electrical shock Tasers to detain and arrest 13 people," including Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Backe. The event and subsequent disciplining of 13 Galveston police officers for the incident - not for excessive force but for "failing to record details of what happened" in official reports - made national headlines.

17 comments:

Under Texas law, a minor can consume alcohol "if they are in the visible presence of, and have the consent of their adult parent, legal guardian or spouse."

This may just be my northeastern ignorance, but can someone explain to me what's intended by the inclusion of the word "adult" parent? As opposed to the propriety of drinking alcohol by the child of a non-adult parent? And I don't even want to know why they included spouse.

I keep trying to find ways to avoid making fun of Texas, and Texas keeps making that difficult.

Here's a video of the Galveston Police tasering and pepper spraying peaceful wedding guests who posed no threat at the 4 diamond San Luis Resort - in Galveston the criminals wear badges(In the video the innocent civilians are backed up against a wall and can't go any further. The police tell them to back up (although clearly they can see that the civilians are against a wall) and then they taser and pepper spray. This same Galveston beatdown by the police included the arrest of the FEMA Director of Operations Post-Ike Jaime Ferrero because he attempted to report police brutality (they said he was interfering with a police officer, naturally). I implore anyone with connections to the justice department or the ACLU to take action in Galveston. It's been off the radar for so long, in many ways it's still run as a pre-civil rights era city. What happend to the guests at the tony San Luis resort happens regularly to Galveston's poor minority residents. People are afraid of the police in Galveston. Corruption runs very deep.Here's that video of the GPD tasering and pepperspraying wedding guests at the ritzy San Luis resorthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq0v50vT7bQ

Here's an article about the arrest of the FEMA Director of Operations on Galveston after Hurricane Ike - he was arrest after attempting to report police brutalityhttp://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou081006_tj_FEMA_official_arrested_ike_galveston.ea6a1183.html

Thanks so much Scott, for posting about this terrible incident. This is the same police department (Galveston) where 4 adult male police officer beat up a 12 year old child, then put her through a trial for assault against THEM. The same officer then arrested this child's father two days later and for "trace cocaine possession) in a stunning conflict of interest, and he was bullied into a 2 year plea bargain. These officers were members of the Galveston Police Narcotics Division - an audit revealed that the narcotics division officer hung on to seized drugs and cash, did not turn it in to the evidence department, and did not keep track of how much was seized or who had what.

Of course there are no charges for 'excessive force' or 'aggravated assault'; just nonsense about not following 'procedure'. If procedure is followed it seems the badge bearers may very well have license to kill.

Schenectady, NY is faced with possibly cleaning out its entire PD and starting fresh; maybe the aged mayor of Galveston needs to consider similar action.

Enough of the 'only one' attitude exhibited by too many of our police officers, who I believe, still get paychecks from we the sheeple.

the Denver cops got commemorative t-shirts after last summer's convention; something to the effect; 'We get up early to BEAT the crowds', and they did beat the protestors and a few who wandered into the way.

Well rumor has it that if you’re not the brightest bulb in the batch, have anger management issues that family members can attest to; you’re a great match to be a cop for GPD. Some say the same applies for Houston as well. Real dumb ass red neck mentality.

Its amazing on every "police brutality" video that I've seen from these "police brutality reports" never shows anything prior to the use of force... Seems awfully strange and one sided to me.... Perhaps 10:00 a.m. should show more of that You Tube video...

You can tell the victims of this horrible police brutality were peaceful due to their demeanor prior to being tased and peppersprayed. They aren't making threatening gestures, aren't yelling, aren't lunging at the cops. Puh-leaze people - are we to believe that people standing quietly with their hands at their side (2 people) who are unarmed pose a threat to a gang of 10 thugs with badges and guns on the Galveston GPD? I think not..

I'd like to add that they are standing on the ground of the best resort in Galveston. Prior to this incident this resort hired off duty GPD officers for security. Not anymore - I think that speaks volumes.

One would think if these wedding guests were actually such a danger, the hotel would be thanking the GPD.

Her we go again. While the cops are clearly unchecked, it's the prosecutors that make it impossible to get a fair shake. They are cingularly the most corrupt people in law enforcement followed by judges and then the fuzz. When they don't even get a slap on the hand they become a run-away train. Gestapo? And then the assholes in Austin chime in about what a difficult job it is. Well if it's too tough change your line of work..there are still jobs for Neanderthals!

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